They had been walking through the tunnels for over two hours before Alan realized something. It had been a pleasant trip as they chatted amongst each other, it wasn't until a few minutes ago that they had even bothered to switch to using chat. Before this they had felt secure in the normal patrols the guards had done to keep the area clear.

Now that they were limited to chat, their conversation had naturally fallen into a lull. Since it was so quiet, his mind had a chance to roam, and he remembered that the dungeon still hadn't given him a quest. They were a long way from the kobold city, but it seemed strange that he hadn't gotten anything.

He couldn't ask his companions about it either, since they were both still bound to the dungeon core. He had no way of really knowing, but it felt like the dungeon had a surprise in store for him. Alan would have to be on the lookout.

Over the next several hours they got farther and farther away from the mining camp and closer to the kobold city. They had already passed the abandoned site where the monsters had staged their raid from. With nothing else to do, Alan took the opportunity of having company to try out another of his new abilities.

Technically it wasn't an ability, at least not a class ability. After realizing he had a Presence, he hadn't really had a time to try it out. It wasn't normally something that he could use if he was alone. It took him the first hour of their silent walk to figure out how to activate his presence on demand. Any time he had engaged it previously, it had been more instinctual than a conscious decision.

Now that he knew how to get it going, he tried to study its effect on his squadmates. The most obvious change was an increase in their pace. He judged their walking speed to be at least half again as fast as before. He had to be careful or they might get too far ahead of the rest of their group.

Alan found it interesting that neither Thadrick nor Bodvar seemed to notice when he activated it. When he started pumping out energy he could see their backs straighten and their strides lengthen, but they never commented on it. When he asked them how they felt, they just gave him puzzled looks. It also didn't seem to him to be as powerful as when he had activated it before. Perhaps he needed the pressure of combat to get it really flowing.

After walking for almost ten hours, they were still quite a distance from the kobold town, but Lieutenant Kargan called for a rest. Alan and his squad continued forward a little to make sure their camp was secure before they headed back. The main group had set up camp in an area where the tunnel had widened a bit. It wasn't what you might call a cavern, but it was wide enough that they could set up without getting too spread out.

The lieutenant had first suggested a cavern they found with a pool of water in it, but Alan had recognized it from their previous trip and warned him off. The small pond had given him a sense of danger and Cassidy had mentioned just such a place, possibly the same one, as the location of Gayorg's demise from a watery ambusher.

No one had a tent, instead they would set up bedrolls. First, however, several members of the patrol took out a large collection of stones from their storage, and created walls at both ends of their camp. They weren't any type of permanent structure, but they were tall and would prevent anyone from just walking in. They also set up a platform for a sentry at each as well.

Back on Earth, his Army commanders would have loved spatial storage. The ability to carry heavy and large materials around in a pouch, ring, or other piece of jewelry would have given the logistics officers wet dreams. It also made feeding everyone much easier. Most of the group simply pulled out a precooked meal. Their storage preserved anything exactly as it was when it was put inside.

Wanting to test out his new cooking skills and tools, Alan instead set up a small cooking area for the three of them. Kargan would have most likely been pissed if he tried to light a fire, but Alan had gotten much better at heating things with his fire stones.

Bodvar had some uncooked noodles in his storage and Thadrick had a wheel of cheese. Alan's contribution was some lizard that he chopped up and fried. Then he cooked the pasta before adding the cooked meat to the cheese sauce he had made. The three of them enjoyed a delicious lizard alfredo, as most of the others were already putting away the remains of their meals. It might be easier to bring prepared meals, but there was a sense of comradery gained from sitting around, waiting for food to cook.

A few of the soldiers had been assigned to take sentry duty throughout the night, and Thadrick was one of them. He had actually gotten one of the good time slots, right near the start of their night. It would allow him to get a larger chunk of unbroken time. Alan wasn't given a slot, but he chose to stay up and keep his friend company.

There was only room for one on the raised platform, so Alan sat, leaning his back against its base. They talked for a while, but eventually they lapsed into a companionable silence. Alan took the opportunity to sharpen his knives. Afterwards, he took out his spewn and tried to stare into its aura. He was shocked to discover that he finally could see it.

His skill wasn't quite to the point where he could say he understood all of its complexities, but he was incredibly close. Soon, he would be able to read it well enough to start adding enchantments. This also meant that it was time to add something to his pugio. He had been holding off working on it because he didn't want to ruin one of his preferred weapons, but it would be better to practice with his dagger rather than his spewn.

While Thadrick gazed out over an empty tunnel, Alan studied the energy flows of his pugio and tried to decide what to add. It was a common item, so he would only be able to place one enhancement. It could be either through mana reinforcement or by etching a rune. There were pros and cons to each method, but he had some time to choose.

A heaviness rune was an option, but it didn't seem like a great choice for a dagger. Sharpness, on the other hand, seemed like an obvious pick. There were a couple more options for engraving that he was capable of, but he wasn't sure they made sense. That left him considering enhancement, infusing it with mana to gain a more permanent effect.

Fire mana would most likely cause the weapon to do some fire damage when it hit, similar to his spewn, but it wasn't really calling out to him. In his study with Dracon he had also seen how to use air mana to make his strikes faster, or water mana to increase the fluidity of his movements. These were also good choices, but they didn't tickle his fancy.

He had recently gained access to more types of mana, which meant more options for infusing. However, the only ones he had real practice with were holy and infernal. He thought about trying to combine the two to create some kind of meteor effect, but reality was like a wet blanket. His spell didn't combine the two types of mana, that was impossible. Instead it combined the effects of the two types of mana into one form that created a meteor. Mages were able to split mana into more basic forms, but it wasn't possible to do the opposite and combine mana to make a new type.

Still, the idea of holy mana stuck in his mind, especially considering how evil their upcoming enemy was. It was silly to think that way, since he didn't really have any evidence that different mana types would affect different types of creatures. Although, come to think of it, Gleena had been fairly resistant to fire, while on the other hand the cherub had not been, even though they were both angel-demon hybrids. This Network was confusing at times. Most of the time if he was being honest.

Alan decided to stop thinking about it and start doing. He told Thadrick he was going to be out of it for a minute and placed the pugio on his lap, underneath both hands. Then he started channeling holy mana into the aura of the dagger. Enhancing an item wasn't as simple as just pouring mana into it, but Alan had gotten enough practice to have a good idea of how to proceed, even though it was a new form of energy.

Some of the new mana was allowed to permeate the entire item, but most of it he directed to the edges. It took him longer than he thought to properly infuse it, but this was his first time working with non-basic mana. It took so long that Thadrick's duty had actually ended already, but the dwarf chose to sit next to his friend until he broke his trance.

After about an hour, Alan was finally done, and he opened his eyes and saw he now had company on the ground.

"That took longer than I thought, didn't it?" Alan asked.

Thadrick answered, "Aye, but it's not a problem. I thought you might like a friendly face when you finished whatever you were doing."

"I was enchanting my dagger."

It took Thadrick a moment to realize that message had come over the army chat. It was another moment for him to understand why Alan might want that revelation to be private.

"You mean you added magic to your dagger, right here while I sat next to you?"

Alan laughed out loud, before whispering into his chat "Yes, I thought it would be nice to have a better weapon before heading into battle."

"Well, don't keep a fellow in suspense, what's it do?"

"Give me a sec." With that, Alan took a moment to inspect his handiwork.

Holy-Infused Pugio (common): An iron dagger designed as a thrusting weapon. Approximately 28 centimeters long with a wide and double edged blade. It has been infused with holy mana and will deal extra damage. It is particularly good at disrupting infernal mana of all types.

Well, that was underwhelming, maybe. It didn't say how much extra damage it would deal, so maybe it was better than he thought. Also, the idea of disrupting infernal mana wasn't terrible, but it was also kind of a niche ability. When he shared the description with Thadrick, however, he was still impressed.

"Do you realize how valuable that extra damage could be to regular blokes, those of us without lots of gold or tons of classes. Also, some types of creatures are resistant to regular weapons, and by imbuing your knife with mana, it would make it far more effective against them."

Put in that perspective, Alan did see how it could be valuable. It was after all similar to his mentor's advice when he had first taught him how to enchant items. He also needed to remember that this wasn't something most, if not all, other white grades could do. His aura reading skill was an ability most people didn't get this early, and his aura enhancing was pretty much unheard of for anyone below red grade.

Alan offered to try and do Thadrick's axe, but his friend gripped it protectively and declined. It was a weapon far beyond Thadrick's normal means, made for him by Bodvar's girlfriend Helge, and Alan understood how important it was to him. He didn't fault his friend for not wanting to use up an enchantment slot. The axe was actually uncommon so it could take two improvements, but he didn't want to risk one on an enchantment a white grade could perform. Even if it was his friend.

With nothing else to do, the two returned to their chosen camping spot and lay down in their bedrolls. Alan had slept many times in Thadricks house, so he was used to the low rumbling of his snores. Bodvar on the other hand, his snores were enough to rattle pebbles, and Alan even saw a nearby cup, that had been left out, fall over during one impressive set. Luckily, one of the benefits of his higher perception, and possibly his predator's focus talent, was that he could suppress certain stimuli. He suppressed the heck out of Bodvar's snores.

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Eventually he was able to drift off to sleep, and then found himself being shaken awake in the morning. Alan was traditionally an early riser, but here in the depths of a mountain, in a dungeon with literally its own time, his internal clock was useless. Camp was already breaking up, and dwarves were munching on their breakfast that they had once again retrieved from storage.

There was no time to cook, so Alan took out a collection of berries from his ring. Some of the nearby soldiers saw his colorful treat and were eager to trade more traditional meals for just a few. His supply of fruit took a significant hit, but he ended up gaining a lot of omelets and bacon for his storage, and a huge amount of goodwill. Even Kargan thanked him for a small pile of strawberries. Trying one of the omelets, he was impressed with the flavor. It was far superior to the eggs-in-a-tray that he used to get in the Army.

The most time-intensive part of getting ready to march was the taking down of the walls. That was a relative term however, since the assigned dwarves were able to accomplish it in under fifteen minutes. All they had to do was slightly lift a rock off the pile, and then it could be stored away.

When they had made camp the night before, they were more than halfway to the city. This was an impressive accomplishment, but with their enhanced stats the soldiers were able to make good time, and Alan's presence had allowed Bodvar and Thadrick to keep up. In the early hours of the march, they hadn't really needed to take their duties as scouts all that seriously, so they were able to focus on speed. However, for the last bit during the previous day, and certainly now, they were much more focused and only Alan's boost allowed them to stay ahead.

They had not yet hit the portion of the tunnels that was lit with the red crystals, so Alan was still relying on glow stones. Now that he only needed a minimal amount, however, the light from the stone would not be visible from more than twenty or thirty meters away, even in a straight section of the tunnel. If they were that close, Alan's other senses should be able to detect them, so he didn't really fear giving away their position.

It took them about six hours for his forward group to make it to the area that was being actively patrolled. After letting Kargan know, Alan was ordered to fall back to the rest of the army. Here, the lieutenant issued his final commands before they engaged with the kobolds. The main block of the squad would continue forward, with Alan's group closer in, but still slightly in front.

Stealth would no longer be a concern, instead they would take out any small patrols they noticed while keeping an eye out for larger groups. If they did find a serious threat, they were to let the main force come forward and take them out. Mostly Alan's job was to make sure there wasn't a final ambush before they hit the city's main cavern.

Kargan had some special orders for Alan before they broke off, "When we do hit the city, I'll take my group and go straight for the gates, slaughtering every kobold we can find. Your job will be to find any other drow in the city, especially that accomplice the waitress mentioned, and take them out. We'll be causing a large ruckus, which should draw all of the attention. Hopefully, that will let you make your way through the city with minimal resistance."

The plan made sense to Alan. There was no way to sneak such a large force past the patrols, so they might as well just go in hard and fast. However, if there were any higher level beings in the city, they might be able to come up with a defensive plan, or even worse, form their own Army Array. If Alan took them out, then the forty-nine dwarves going in the front should have little difficulty in routing the low leveled kobolds.

The other wildcard was the accomplice that Parina had mentioned. Sending Alan to find him also made a ton of sense, especially since he still hadn't gotten a quest message. Whatever the mission ended up being, he assumed it was going to be related to the mystery drow.

As they made their way forward, Alan didn't feel a pressing need to slaughter the kobolds himself. He was unfortunately unable to level his classes until he evolved his guardian and scholar class. Also, they were such a low level compared to him now, he doubted his skills would see much improvement either. They had been a rather easy foe the last time they fought, and since then Alan had made significant improvements to his stats and fighting style.

Instead, he let Thadrick and Bodvar take the lead as they cleared out the patrols in front of the rest of the Army. They were still quartz, and could benefit from the experience. Occasionally Alan was forced to lend a hand, or to chase down a cowardly dragonkin, but for the most part he was able to simply watch his two squad members fight.

It felt a little like a betrayal of his friend to admit that Bodvar was a better fighter than Thadrick. He did have two classes to Thadrick's one, which definitely helped, but he was also more skilled with his hammer and shield than Thadrick was with his axe. It could have been a matter of training, or possibly a measure of their enemy.

Thadrick's axe was capable of doing far more damage than his fellow miner's hammer, but both were overkill when it came to the kobolds. The bonuses from the Army Array made that even more significant. What that meant, was that they mowed through the patrols they faced. The only time Alan had to intervene was when they faced groups with ranged support.

Both dwarves had decent armor, although Bodvar's was more impressive. No doubt it was related to his relationship with the camp's best blacksmith. However, neither would easily shrug off a crossbow bolt, which some of the kobolds carried. These were much more deadly than the bows Alan had previously seen, but the creatures carrying them were just as susceptible to his fire bolts as all the others.

Thadrick took the left side and Bodvar the right when they fought. This allowed Bodvar to keep his shield on the side Thadrick wielded his axe. It likely meant fewer instances of getting in each other's way, which was a good thing. It allowed both dwarves to mostly do their own thing. Bodvar left a trail of broken bodies behind him, but Thadrick mostly left pieces. His axe carved their bodies apart as if they were tissue paper.

Perhaps it was because of how effective his attacks were, or maybe it was simply a result of a flaw in his fighting style, but Thadrick's aggressive swings would often leave openings. The kobolds were usually too busy suffering from a case of now-in-two-parts-itis to take advantage of those gaps. Bodvar was much more controlled with his attacks, and was able to unalive his opponents without leaving the same opportunities for counter attacks.

Again, because of the level of foe it was hard to judge if Thadrick was not a great fighter, or if he was simply unable to properly show his stuff against such a weak foe. Alan was still leaning toward Bodvar being the better fighter, with Thadrick perhaps gaining a slight edge against a more determined opponent.

Never once did they face a group they couldn't handle. The largest force they found was a group of six, with two crossbowmen, but Alan burned them to a cinder while the dwarves butchered the four scimitar wielding kobolds. Finally, an opening into the city cavern was before them. Now they waited for the rest of the group, who was less than thirty seconds behind them.

With Alan's squad staying closer, Kargan had often been in position to watch their encounters and he gave both miners a slap on the shoulder as he marched past. In his eyes they had done their race proud today, but he soon regained his focus as now it was time for the true slaughter to commence.

The city didn't have any real defenses, other than a small wall running around it. The opening they had used didn't lead directly to a gate, but they could see one less than a hundred meters away. After having regrouped into a rectangle six dwarves across, Kargan's army took off at a fast jog. They found themselves before the gate less than a minute after entering the cavern.

The kobolds had no chance to react to this assault. They only had two guards posted at the flimsy wooden gate, but they weren't very observant and only realized they were under attack when the front line of the dwarves was bearing down on them. They were quickly left as bloody heaps and most of the dwarves marched inside.

The lieutenant left a group of fifteen dwarves to hold the gate as they pressed forward. Alan and his fellow scouts stayed at the back of the dwarven formation. Even though he was not tall for a human, Alan towered over the dwarves. To make himself less conspicuous, he tried to crouch down, but he was still too tall.

It soon didn't matter, however. The dwarves were roaring out a battle challenge and the kobolds began to flock towards them in droves. It wasn't long until the front half of the group was surrounded by a mass of the bloodthirsty dragonkin. This was what Alan had been waiting for.

Now that the kobolds were committed, more should be on their way to try and drive out the dwarves. That should mean the deeper areas of the settlement should be emptying out. He and his squad slunk away from the battle, and hugging the wall, made their way farther into the city. They were now on a mission to seek and destroy.

Kargan's words had proven prophetic so far, the array enhanced dwarves had been cutting through the kobolds like a mower through a lawn. As long as there were no higher leveled threats, or more intelligent leaders to formulate a real defense, the city was already finished. It was Alan's job to make sure neither of those things appeared.

Eventually his group would need to enter the city proper and stop skulking around the edges, but for now he wanted to get some distance between them and the stream of kobolds making their way to be slaughtered by Kargan's men. As they stalked along he studied the buildings.

All of them seemed to be slight variations of the style, stone barracks. Some were three stories, most were two, and looking in through the windows he saw rows of filthy cots and small dining areas. The dungeon had made an effort to make the city seem real from a distance, but up close it was revealed to just be housing for their enemy. There were no shops or workspaces, just building after building of high capacity living areas.

Alan finally judged that they should be away from the highest concentration of kobolds and led his men inwards. It was only a few tens of meters before he ran into what looked like the first real street. There was a steady flow of enemies marching to their death, but it was a stream instead of a raging tide.

They chose to pause here and watch for a bit. Truly, it was just as likely that a high value target would walk past them here, as it was that they would find them by wandering around. After five minutes of watching the same low leveled creatures run past, they decided to keep going. If nothing had shown up yet, then either there likely wasn't anything to worry about, or they were all gathered at some central location.

Staying behind the buildings bordering the street, making sure they weren't noticed by the flood of enemies, they followed the stream back to where they came from. Eventually they came to a larger intersection. Here, several roads met in a small space. The kobolds were mostly flowing from all of the other sections of the city to go down one or two roads that led back toward the gate.

Thadrick suggested that they pause here, where they could watch a much larger section at once. Alan agreed, setting another mental five minute timer. If they hadn't seen anything of interest, then they would move on. It wasn't long into that countdown before something caught his eye.

The flow of the creatures shifted as an eddy appeared in the middle. Eight kobolds were moving down one of the streets perpendicular to those leading towards the fight. When they made it to the intersection, they cut across the main flow, and the common soldiers made way for them. Alan focused in on one of them, risking identify, figuring they should be too low level to have any chance of detecting his probe.

Creature: Kobold Priest (Uncommon) level 8, threat low. While kobolds in general worship dragons and their kin in the abstract, a priest has found a specific creature to worship. They are usually given special abilities by their Patron.

It was nice to receive the extra info again, almost confirming that it was a question of the difference between the creature's level and his own identify skill level. After the last dungeon he also understood what the message meant when it mentioned a Patron. The priest had made a pact with a higher creature, similar to what the dead priest Thomas had done.

Two more of the group also registered as priests, and the other five were just regular kobolds. Wherever they were going, it wasn't toward the fight near the gates, and all of the commoners got out of their way. This was a clue Alan's squad should follow. It was more difficult this time, since they had to keep track of them in the middle of the crowd of enemies, while also staying out of sight.

Luckily, Alan's predator's focus talent seemed to be helping as he was able to track the movements of that first priest fairly well. It also got easier when the group turned off of the main road onto a smaller side street. This one didn't have any other traffic on it, so Alan's squad was able to move back more and still follow their movements.

It wasn't long after that when he realized where they were headed. This was one of the few areas of the city he had scouted previously. Thadrick hadn't gotten to look around as much then, so he hadn't realized it yet, but they were headed toward where the prisoners had been kept during their last visit. Other than the prisoners, there was only one more area of interest as far as Alan knew.

Just as he was putting this together, a burst of light appeared over the rooftops. Telling Thadrick and Bodvar to keep following the priests, Alan climbed one of the nearby buildings. It was a three story one, so it meant more effort, but it also gave him a better vantage point when he got to the roof. He wasn't sure how to process what he saw.

Right where he would expect the ritual area to be, there was a large pillar of purple flames. It was maybe ten meters across and was burning fifteen or twenty meters in the air. As he watched the pillar rose slightly higher. Something very not good was going on over there. The dungeon confirmed this by finally giving him his quest.

New Quest: Corrupted Ritual (500)

[The kobolds and their hidden master have begun a foul ritual for some no doubt nefarious purpose. Prevent them from completing their plan and force them out of their city.]

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